Experts cast doubt over claims made by a 27-year-old man that he owns one of
the world's great art collections with pieces by van Gogh, Rembrandt and
others

It is one of the world’s finest art collections in private hands with paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso and Rembrandt among others. It even contains a previously undiscovered version of Edvard Munch’s The Scream, perhaps the most famous modern artwork ever created.

So when the owner Mark Lawrence declared he wanted to build a gallery and put the works on public display in his hometown, the local council in Reading gave him its full support, calling it a “prestigious collection” that it was “thrilled” to show.

The BBC too jumped on the bandwagon, giving airtime when Mr Lawrence unveiled a previously unseen van Gogh in the humble surroundings of a cafe in the Berkshire town.

The publicity even led to the public pledging thousands of pounds to help Mr Lawrence open The Reading Gallery to house the works.

The only problem is Mr Lawrence has not actually authenticated his collection of 200 supposed masterpieces. Experts began queuing up to suggest they are - in all likelihood - not actually genuine. If that is the case, Mr Lawrence’s claims of possessing a “world class collection of art” must rank as one of the most brazen of art world hoaxes.

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The doubts over its authenticity were compounded by an admission by The Reading Gallery’s head researcher that he has only actually seen “one or two” pieces.

Mr Lawrence, 27, who lives in a terraced house in Reading, has insisted the paintings and the other antiquities in his collection were largely assembled by his grandfather Vivian Wetten, an architect, who died in 1980.

Other works came from descendants of the Wetten family, who originated in the former Duchy of Saxony in Germany and whose lineage can be traced back to 1643.

Mr Lawrence claims to have inherited the collection when he turned 18 and has now unveiled his plan to find a home for the collection in Reading - a project backed by Labour-run Reading Borough Council.

When Mr Lawrence put on display a van Gogh from his collection in Reading’s Novotel Hotel as part of a wider Reading Arts exhibition in June, Cllr Sarah Hacker, the town’s deputy mayor, posed next to the painting.

“I am very happy to support them bringing these pieces to Reading,” she declared on Facebook, giving her endorsement to Mr Lawrence’s “amazing art collection”.

Cllr Paul Gittings, Reading’s lead member for culture, sport and consumer services, said of the same event: “We are thrilled to be able to show a selection from such a prestigious collection.”

The BBC followed up with a report earlier this month headlined “Van Gogh painting worth millions hung in Reading cafe”, which detailed how Mr Lawrence had allowed the painting Houses at Auvers II to be shown to the public in a local cafe.

But the BBC report was spotted by a van Gogh expert in Canada who immediately began to suspect. David Brooks said: “I know van Gogh’s works backwards and forwards and when I look at that painting it is obviously done in the style of van Gogh but it is poorly executed in my opinion.”

The van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam also questioned its authenticity. “We are not familiar with the work. It has never come to us for authentication. There is nothing to suggest van Gogh has painted this painting,” said a spokeswoman.

Among other works in the collection is a possible fifth painting of Munch’s The Scream, a version of which sold for a world record £70 million at auction in 2012. Magne Bruteig, a curator at the Munch Museum in Oslo in Norway, said: “We have not been contacted by this person [Mr Lawrence]. It seems very unlikely a version of such a famous painting should not have come to the surface sooner than this.”

Mr Bruteig said photgraphs on the internet he had seen of Mr Lawrence’s Munch suggested to him it was a fake.

Mr Lawrence has refused to speak to The Telegraph about the claims. Mystery surrounding the collection grew when Adam Busiakiewicz, an art history student who is listed as the head researcher, said: “I have not seen all the work... I have only seen one or two [pieces]. I am just as stumped as you are. I would like to make it clear to you I am not involved. I have only met him twice.”

Mr Busiakiewicz added: “He asked me to come on board but I haven’t been that involved.”

The Reading Gallery’s director of marketing Alexandra Abbs said she too had not seen all the collection. “I have seen a few of the pieces - between 10 and 20.”

She added: “At the moment we want to research everything fully. Our next phase is to research everything from the history and the provenance. I trust Mark fully. Having seen a substantial number [of paintings] I am more than happy with everything.”

Miss Abbs said that the public lpedges of almost £6,000 - raised through a fundraising website - would not be taken from people’s accounts and the request for donations had been cancelled following the furore.

In an interview with a local news website in Reading, Mr Lawrence said he had been misunderstood by the BBC in its initial report, and that he had been deeply upset by a subsequent BBC story casting doubt on his collection.

He said: “They [the BBC] are destroying my character. I’ve dedicated hundreds of hours of my life to charity work and I’ve worked my a*** off to build this gallery and they’re turning everyone against me.

“All I did was try to enhance the town I was born in and the people that live here and they are destroying that.”